• Anthony L Back, Cynda H Rushton, Alfred W Kaszniak, and Joan S Halifax.
• 1 Department of Medicine, University of Washington , Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington.
• J Palliat Med. 2015 Jan 1;18(1):26-30.

BackgroundWhen the brutality of illness outstrips the powers of medical technology, part of the fallout lands squarely on front-line clinicians. In our experience, this kind of helplessness has cognitive, emotional, and somatic components.ObjectivesCould we approach our own experiences of helplessness differently? Here we draw on social psychology and neuroscience to define a new approach.MethodsFirst, we show how clinicians can reframe helplessness as a self-barometer indicating their level of engagement with a patient. Second, we discuss how to shift deliberately from hyper- or hypo-engagement toward a constructive zone of clinical work, using an approach summarized as "RENEW": recognizing, embracing, nourishing, embodying, and weaving--to enable clinicians from all professional disciplines to sustain their service to patients and families.

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